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My experience tells me the deeper the holes the better the pleats lay. And the firmer the foam the better the pleats and the whole job look.

The thickness of the back foam will be dictated by how much room the seat has. Set some different sizes in there and decide what feels best. 2" or 3" are my favorites.

Do the same for the density of the foam. I would not use a soft foam but on the other hand you don't want it so firm it is uncomfortable. Keep in mind those marshel units will make it feel a little softer and keep in mind the tufting will add some firmness to it.

You can top it off with Dacron but my favorite is cotton.

The best advice I can give someone who is starting a tufting job for the first time is don't pull the fire out of the buttons when first poking them into the fabric. I like to pull them about 3/4 of the way into the hole. This lets you go back later and make adjustments as needed. When your done there will most likely be 2 or 3 buttons that will need slight adjustments, vertically or horizontally. This will require removing the button and re-poking it. You will be surprised how a 3/32nd inch adjustment makes a big difference.

The needle I use for tufting is 18" long. I have owned this same needle almost as long as I've been upholstering furniture. I'm sure I could use a smaller needle to get the job done but the 18 incher comes in handy for many other uses like stringing buttons through the ends of a bolster.

I also own a needle similar to the one you ask about. Like Paul said it is used to replace a button. I have replaced many buttons, for a fee, using this tool.

I now see why the marshall units were used (I think). With 3" of spring, plus 3" foam behind, I have to sit way far back to get support from the backrest. With this design, you'd have to waste a whole bunch of foam to build it up right.I plan to go with with the original, 3" foam, 3" spring, 1" foam, cotton, hopefully that will be enough.

When you tuft onto 1" foam and it is all new you can do it by layout. top to bottom is a finish size and left to right add 1/4" per inch. So if you have a layout 4h x 4w you can layout on the fabric 4" high by 5" wide and mark the back. That will allow the fabric to fold. Your not going to get deep tufting with 1" of filling but it can still be tufting.

I still have the opportunity to ditch the marshall units on the backrest and go straight foam, but I actually think this light tufting shows off the crystal buttons better. The armrests are padded with only foam.

Thanks. Trying to offer something different that you can't get anywhere else. Something to help define by business.

I looked all over and watched videos - still can't tell how the top of the backrest and armrest is buttoned. Do I just button it right to back of the foam with a slipknot and something to prevent it from pulling through? It appeared previously the twine was stapled to the back of the frame. And I've stapled the foam to the top, which I will have to undo otherwise I can't get to to anything.

Yes Kody using cotton at the back.Just debating about the piecing of fabric. When I looked at the original photo it appeared to me that they skipped one button on the armrest so they could sew a section on. I would prefer not to skip. I may have enough fabric that I could sew two big pieces together and make the entire thing tufted without skipping Only reason I think they did this was to save fabric. I see no other reason why.